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  • a critical mass of crazy people

    From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 8 12:23:10 2023
    Bill Gates thought the internet would make all of us more responsible,
    but he realized it just helped 'a critical mass of crazy people' find
    each other
    ...
    ...
    Bill Gates said he was originally expecting the internet to make the
    world a more fact-based, rational place, but has come to realize it's
    become a tool for disinformation and "crazy ideas."

    https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-microsoft-internet-artificial-intelligence-crazy-people-critical-mass-2023-12

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike Spencer@21:1/5 to JAB on Fri Dec 8 17:43:30 2023
    JAB <here@is.invalid> writes:

    Bill Gates thought the internet would make all of us more responsible,
    but he realized it just helped 'a critical mass of crazy people' find
    each other
    ...
    [snip]

    https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-microsoft-internet-artificial-intelligence-crazy-people-critical-mass-2023-12

    I've been saying that for years, causing people to, yew kno, look at
    me funny. We all had warning long ago (how long ago was it?) with the
    joke about a web search for "people who have sex with goats that are
    on fire". (Reply: "What kind of goat?")

    All the time I was growing up (50s/60s), I only ever saw one utterly
    demented screed, hand-printed, then the margins filled with smaller
    printing, Hectographed on both sides of 8-1/2 x 11, shoved under all
    doors on my street, revealing that China was only 1/4 the size shown
    on maps and that the Chinese created the need for glasses in Western
    nations by blowing dust into people's eyes (among other heinous
    pursuits).

    Now I can find in a few minutes 1,000 people, many of them now or
    formerly elected to office or who are absurdly wealthy, that are far
    more demented/deluded.

    --
    Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

    Pereant qui ante nos nostris dixerunt

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere on Fri Dec 8 18:53:52 2023
    On 08 Dec 2023 17:43:30 -0400, Mike Spencer
    <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:

    All the time I was growing up (50s/60s), I only ever saw one utterly
    demented screed, hand-printed, then the margins filled....revealing
    that China was only 1/4 the size shown on maps and that the Chinese
    created the need for glasses in Western nations by blowing dust into
    people's eyes (among other heinous pursuits).

    Maybe some literature from the John Birch Society?
    =====================

    The society rose quickly in membership and influence, and also became
    known for Welch's conspiracy theories.
    ...
    ...
    Despite never considering itself a religious organization, the JBS
    played a role in the rise of the Moral Majority and the Christian
    right as major political forces, ideologically and tactically
    influencing multiple leaders in that movement.....The historian D. J.
    Mulloy wrote in 2014 that the JBS has served as "a kind of bridge"
    between the Old Right (including the McCarthyites) of the 1940s-50s,
    the New Right of the 1970s-80s, and the Tea Party right of the 21st
    century.
    ....
    ...
    According to Professor Matthew Dallek, modern American conservatism
    "bear[s] the imprint of the John Birch Society," [58]: 2 and "the GOP
    has largely replaced the ideological tenets of Reaganism with a
    worldview inherited from the John Birch Society (JBS)."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike Spencer@21:1/5 to JAB on Sat Dec 9 16:34:07 2023
    JAB <here@is.invalid> writes:

    On 08 Dec 2023 17:43:30 -0400, Mike Spencer
    <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:

    All the time I was growing up (50s/60s), I only ever saw one utterly >demented screed, hand-printed, then the margins filled....revealing
    that China was only 1/4 the size shown on maps and that the Chinese
    created the need for glasses in Western nations by blowing dust into >people's eyes (among other heinous pursuits).

    Maybe some literature from the John Birch Society?
    =====================

    In the early 50s, I had an up-before-dawn paper route and enjoyed the
    frivolous Pogo cartoons. Some years later, someone remarked to me
    about the satirical political content of Pogo and I didn't get it.

    More years later, I saw a quote from Walt Kelly that said
    (reconstructing from memory):

    If they want cartoons, I give them cartoons. If they want bun
    rabbits, I give them bun rabbits.

    I deduced that I had lived in a Bun Rabbit town. Well, of course the
    name, Springfield Republican, might have been a clue had I been
    political enought at that age to notice.

    In any case, it wasn't until long after my daily Pogo exposure that I
    heard about the Jack Acid Society and read some of the collected Pogo
    cartoons in Pogo books.

    Now, of course, nearly the whole GOP are Jack Acids. Where is Walt
    Kelly [genuflect] when we need him?


    According to Professor Matthew Dallek, modern American conservatism
    "bear[s] the imprint of the John Birch Society," [58]: 2 and "the GOP
    has largely replaced the ideological tenets of Reaganism with a
    worldview inherited from the John Birch Society (JBS)."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society

    --
    Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

    OGPU: Okeefenokee Glee and Perloo Union

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere on Sat Dec 9 19:24:48 2023
    On 09 Dec 2023 16:34:07 -0400, Mike Spencer
    <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:

    when we need him?

    Pointed political satire was around before Walt Kelly.

    Active capitalists, the "owners of this country" as George Carlin
    would say, are somewhat analogous to the Borg Collective.

    George highlighted his viewpoints in this 3:14 min vid, https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1732196893373907043
    but to decipher specifics requires knowledge and critical thinking.

    I brought up this topic the other day in regards to company towns
    promoting sports so the workers' minds were consumed with activities
    of daily living, rather than thinking about a company' policies/etc. https://groups.google.com/g/misc.news.internet.discuss/c/oYZWkZvPxVM

    One might make the case that most Republicans are absorbed in the Borg Collective's policies. For instance, their current anti-abortion
    drama is not about "family values, pro-life, etc," but getting them
    into debt so they are focusing their minds upon activities of daily
    living (ADL). When a person is focused upon ADLs, they tend to be
    clueless politically, and lack knowledge and critical thinking skills.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)